Publish new Release workflow (mongo-express/mongo-express)

The Publish new Release workflow from mongo-express/mongo-express, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Publish new Release workflow from the mongo-express/mongo-express repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MIT license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

name: Publish new Release

on: workflow_dispatch

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  publish_package:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
      id-token: write
    environment: release
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: "22"
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"
      - name: Install modules
        run: yarn install
      - name: Create NPM release
        run: npm publish --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
      - name: Create GitHub release
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            const release = require('./scripts/release.cjs')
            const defaultBranch = "${{ github.event.repository.default_branch }}"
            const { owner, repo } = context.repo
            const version = require("./package.json").version
            const versionTag = `v${version}`
            release({ github, context, defaultBranch, versionTag }).then(() => {
              console.log(`Release ${versionTag} created`)
            })

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Estimated ~20% faster on cache hits, plus fewer wasted runs and a safer supply chain. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

name: Publish new Release
 
on: workflow_dispatch
 
permissions:
  contents: read
 
jobs:
  publish_package:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    permissions:
      contents: write
      id-token: write
    environment: release
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          cache: 'npm'
          node-version: "22"
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"
      - name: Install modules
        run: yarn install
      - name: Create NPM release
        run: npm publish --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
      - name: Create GitHub release
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            const release = require('./scripts/release.cjs')
            const defaultBranch = "${{ github.event.repository.default_branch }}"
            const { owner, repo } = context.repo
            const version = require("./package.json").version
            const versionTag = `v${version}`
            release({ github, context, defaultBranch, versionTag }).then(() => {
              console.log(`Release ${versionTag} created`)
            })
 

What changed

• Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. This example uses latchkey-small; pick the runner size that fits the job.
• Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
• Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

What Latchkey heals here

This workflow has steps that commonly fail on transient issues (network, registries, flaky browsers). On Latchkey managed runners they are detected, retried, and self-healed instead of failing your build:

• Dependency installs

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow